Jason's Daily Notes

Today was the day I made a big Thanksgiving feast for a group of friends.

I woke up around 9:30, did a little blogging/email checking, and then spent most of the day preparing the meal. I began by rolling out the shortcrust and baking two pumpkin pies. Mike was up around 11 and, after making some breakfast (two leftover muffins), he helped me make the mashed potatoes.

At 2 I left to visit the rental house, run by two guys, Ben and Nic, where my mom and uncle will be staying. They were nice, and the ground floor flat is also very nice (and has a garden!). It was raining continuously all day. I then headd to Brixton to deposit cash into my bank account, but the bank was closed. So I picked up a few final things from Poundland and returned to the house. Mike had prepared the mashed potatoes beautifully and taken the pumpkin pies out of the oven.

I started to prepare the turkey, cutting up lots of onions. I put it in the oven around 4 (so that it should be done after 2 and a half hours - 6:30). I relaxed for a bit, but Mike soon had to leave to meet his dad and stepmom at 5. They were going to have a nice dinner at Le Mercury in Islington.

Tessa was the first guest to arrive, around 6pm. I still was cooking (gravy, stuffing, cranberry, etc) as she arrived. She helped me stir the gravy. I got a phone call from Ludo, saying that he was free and had nothing to do for a few hours, so I enthusiastically invited him to come over! He soon arrived with Amanda. Mel and Kayleen came down and were hanging out with us. It was around 7 when I got all the food out and tabled. It was great; I carved the turkey, and we all ate from paper plates and drank from red cups.

Fernanda arrived late; she had 7 flat viewings that day, but they seemed promising! Anyway, she joined us just as we were having pumpkin pie for dessert (after 2 helpings each of food). We then continued drinking and played the "celebrity head" game for a round. It was fun (I was Sponge Bob).

Everyone left by 10pm-ish. Fern, Mike, and I lay in his bed and took turns massaging each other; it was fun and honestly felt great! Mel and Kayleen were there too.

Fernanda was flying to Madrid from Heathrow in the morning, so she stayed over the night. I pumped up the air mattress, so she didn't sleep in Mike's room. I slept on the air mattress, which was very comfortable. I didn't hear her leave at 5:30am.